Bioforum 2008 - Poster
Abstract
The new Belgian research station "Princess Elisabeth" will replace the former belgian base (Roi Baudouin) in Eastern Antarctica. The latter one was closed in 1967 and buried under meters of snow. The new station will be constructed on bedrock and in the protected western part of the Sør Rondane mountain range. The proposed construction site is situated near Utsteinen Nunatak, on a small relatively flat granite ridge.

An exhaustive biological baseline data is needed to understand the human impact in the area. Our aim is to contribute to this study by investigating the cyanobacterial diversity eventually present, in order to establish the “footprint” of the station.

We present here a preliminary study of the cyanobacterial diversity in the Sør Rondane area before the installation of the Princess Elisabeth polar base.